


the aetherium

by higher_space



Category: Death Parade (Anime), Original Work
Genre: After death, Drabble, Gen, Other, POV Second Person, Short, might give you the chills?, recommend reading all the way through, theoretical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 00:50:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8823400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/higher_space/pseuds/higher_space
Summary: The Aetherium is the last heaven.  The final component of existence; the missing puzzle piece, far away, but still existing.  It is the last string holding the world from Chaos.  It is known by many names.  Yet, in it’s purest form, it is simply ‘last,’ In every meaning of the word.





	

**Author's Note:**

> a world after death? worlds after death? this made my head spin, just while writing. good luck. 
> 
> headcannon death parade thing? your choice.

 

 

You were falling.

 

The sky around you, it’s… it isn’t sky. At least you don’t think it is. It’s the brilliance of a thousand suns, a supernova exploding all around you. 

 

Or, perhaps a black hole? Everything was everything, but since nothing exists in everything, doesn’t that mean that nothing is the everything?

 

Was there a difference?

 

Creation and destruction.

 

You watched the brilliance, or, perhaps, the dullness, around you. You tried to shut your eyes, to block out everything, for that’s what it was. You tried to breathe, but you were met with emptiness. There was no air, no taste, nothing.

 

It was a supernova of simply everything, and a black hole of nothing colliding and you were stuck in the middle. 

 

No, not stuck, you were falling. Moving. That was… what? Good?

 

The very concept of good and bad confused you.

 

You had lived a life. You had believed it was good. You felt a warm feeling in your chest when you thought of it. That had been… so long ago. So  _ impossibly  _ long ago. You had long since shook hands with Death, and  fallen  risen to a new place. You had spent countless eternities there, in the afterlife. Your breath had been breathed, your touch had been felt, your scent had been inhaled, your voice had been heard, and you lived on. You lived on in all those you remembered you.

 

Now; however, it was gone. 

 

_ Now _ . What a confusing topic. It was a perspective, yet many shared it. All  _ share  _ it. It was also a choice. But, more than anything,  _ now  _ is a paradox. Now can never exist, for it is always gone, it is the dew on a hot summer day. It is always promised to come, yet never there. Some rare occasions,  _ now  _ does come. 

 

For example:  _ now _ .

 

You were in a void, a vacuum. A vacuum filled with everything, anything, nothing. 

 

Then, there was an explosion.

 

You felt it ravage your nerves;  your eyesight muted and ripped away; the smell of something foreign, like metal and soil together, reminding you of a life long since faded away, yet the taste invaded your senses, it was no longer taste it was a whole sensation. It was overloading you, your heart was beating so fast, so impossibly fast, and you couldn’t possibly compare this moment to anything that had ever existed before because you  _ knew  _ that this was different. It was like opening your eyes to see colours you’ve never even imagined before.

 

That was the everything. Now became the nothing.

 

You felt the eternities come. You knew them all too well, for you had spent every moment with them, and they were the ones who had ravaged your body. Now, you felt them pick at your thoughts, your soul, like a vulture picking at roadkill. 

 

You were a blank slate, nothing more than bones.

 

But you were still bones. You still… existed.

 

Now came again, and the eternities had left.

 

You longed for their touch, for they were existence, and you knew that without them, the end would come. As they receded, you realized they weren’t receding, and that you were simply falling farther away.

 

There was no way you could know this however, because your eyes had been metaphorically picked out.

 

You wished the eternities would embrace you, just once more, _ just please, please, let me spend one more time with you-- _

 

But it was too late. You had stopped falling, you were now sinking. And, theoretically, soon, you felt purchase below you. A feeling--wait, you could feel?

 

It came all at once, something that the eternities had taken from you, returned by force unknown.

 

A mountaintop, or at least the ledge of a cliff stretches out before you. You had long since forgotten these foreign words, but now, you were restored. You were simply… alive. It all hit you at once: the radiance of where you were, the radiance of  _ now _ .

 

It's a pale stone, and surrounded by evergreen trees, growing through cracks in the ages-old cliff. It smells like fresh air, and it bites your skin, but it's not bad. It's a beautiful feeling, because all around you is silence, but it's not silent. It's awake and buzzing; the wind howls and every few seconds the trees whisper back; a bird takes off, and you hear its song. You look out, off the edge, it's easily a hundred feet down. An infinite sea of evergreen trees cover the land below. Lakes of shimmering blues, rivalled only by the hues of the fading sky's last light. You turn, realizing now, you stand. The smell of spruce beckons you. The pale plateau which you stand on extends a dozen or so feet to the tree line. There's a grassy patch, and the clouds fade from the sun, and bite of the wind is all but gone. The grass is warm, and the earth is firm, but not uncomfortable. You lie down, closing your eyes. Birds fly far overhead, and their familiar cries give you comfort that you are not alone. You inhale deeply, the scent of spruce engulfs you. It's pleasing, and you feel so calm, so  _ at peace _ . you have no worries about time. You relax as the trees whisper, and the grass sways around you. The clatter of a woodpecker echoes from the distance, and the gentle lapping of waves from a body of water reaches your ears. Briefly, you wonder where the water is? You let the thought fade. Your mind is calm, you have no stress. It is simply you, and the world around you. you cannot even tell if you, personally, are there. It is simply the earth. And that's fine. It’s perfect.

 

You feel something run down your cheek. It is cool, and it reminds you of memories you just can’t reach, no matter how far you jump for them. You don’t like it.

 

You know your eternities have been spent. You plead: _ just one more? _

 

You don’t know who you plead to, but you wish to be heard.

 

And it is.

 

You lie in bliss, in the utter serenity of the last… the last what? The last heaven, the last lifetime…. Oh. You see it now.

 

It is the last everything.

 

You spend your last forever here, in the pale-sunlight soaked clearing. You lie in the cool, green grass, and you try to remember. Faces, words,  _ anything _ .

 

It takes a while. An eternity, perhaps. One last eternity.

 

_ Now  _ happens one more time.

 

You rise from your place in the stone, and you are done your thinking. There is nothing left to ponder.

 

You walk. One step at a time, to the edge of the cliff.

 

You meet the edge, and the air is so pure here. You feel free, you feel so incredibly alive.

 

You know there is nothing else for you to live.

 

You turn one last time before you go.

 

Your eyes widen, and you see them.

 

Your heart races, and suddenly your thoughts are reawakened, because it’s  _ them _ . They stand at the treeline, their back turned. You stretch out your arm, and you try to take a step forward, you try to call out their name.

 

But your last heaven is also your last hell.

 

You feel the pale rock beneath your feet shatter.

 

Your  mouth is still open, ready to call out to them, and your arm still extended, ready to touch them.

 

You are falling once again.

 

They are imprinted onto your eyelids, but, once again, you feel the nothing come, because they were your everything.

 

If only heaven could last.

**Author's Note:**

> weird? yeah. feel free to comment any thoughts.
> 
> -pain and suffering™


End file.
